Colleges will no longer be allowed to expel married students who
legally have babies during their school years, with the
introduction of new regulations in several provinces and
municipalities.
On Thursday, Shanghai introduced a regulation aimed at providing
better family-planning services for married students.
"Married students will be given free advice on reproduction,
sexual health and contraception; schools will cover part of the
cost of antenatal and childbirth care in accordance with relevant
school rules; and married female students will be entitled to
maternity leave," the regulation said.
Several other provinces and regions, including Yunnan, Jiangsu
and Xinjiang, have introduced similar rules.
In the past, students were regularly expelled for getting
pregnant.
The change in attitude follows the launch of a State regulation
earlier in the year to safeguard the rights of adult students to
have children.
The National Population and Family Planning Commission, Ministry
of Health and Ministry of Public Security jointly launched the
regulation ordering schools to set up a registration system to
record their students' marital status and provide free
family-planning services for married students.
The ruling also banned colleges from expelling married students
for having children.
Sun Xiaobing, director of the law office of the Ministry of
Education, said: "This is a manifestation of social progress, as
getting married and having children is a fundamental right of every
citizen, including college students. However, it does not mean that
we are in favor of college students having children when they are
still at school."
The new rules will create some administrative problems for
schools, but in the long run, these can be resolved, as the country
is trying to complete its social and public management systems, Sun
said.
Students have welcomed the new ruling and dismissed concerns it
will lead to more of them having children.
Wang Jingwen, a student at Tsinghua University, said: "Students
are under great pressure to study hard so they can find a job.
"Having a baby will hold up their studies and could damage their
future."
Most students rely on parental support while they are studying,
so I doubt many of them will want to rush into getting married and
having children," Wang said.
(China Daily November 4, 2007)